Mentorship Matters: Set the Pace for Long-term Success

Mentoring is one free strategy to building a better team. Here’s how a small but busy practice builds and develops its team and community through mentoring.

Knowledge is best shared, and a mentoring program builds strong colleague relationships, instills career-building skills among all employees, supports employee retention, and can help to create and preserve positive work culture. Here we discuss how our busy dermatology practice has instituted and successfully implemented mentorship among all employee roles.

FORMAL TRAINING AND MENTOR INTRODUCTION

On the first day of hire, every employee is given a detailed training checklist packet and is assigned a mentor for their onboarding training period. The mentor is typically a staff member in the same or a similar position as the new employee mentee. For a tenured employee, the invitation to be employee mentor is a sign of achievement and promotion into a new leadership role. New staff members cherish having a point person that they build a special comradery with, and someone with whom they can feel comfortable asking questions they may not want to ask the physician or manager. This builds a strong connection early on between employees, as well as alleviates responsibilities from management.

The training checklist includes both administrative tasks, like phone etiquette, learning how to check patients in and out, and how to use the EHR system, as well as medical knowledge about dermatologic products and procedures. This keeps both the mentor and mentee responsible for items each week with columns and signatures that are obtained with the intent of “learn one, see one, do one.” The checklist is the responsibility of both the mentee and mentor to have completed by the end of the three-month onboarding period. This type of program also instills managerial and supervisory skills in the mentor, preparing her for possible promotions in the future. After the onboarding period, the mentee and mentor meet with the manager to discuss how the training period went, to review the checklist, and to celebrate the “graduation” of the new employee. The new employee is then recognized at our weekly staff meeting, once she completes the training period, and the mentor is given a small bonus for their time and effort.

PROVIDER MEDICAL MEETINGS

Twice a month, our founding dermatologist and the physician assistants meet for provider medical meetings to roundtable complex cases, review treatment protocols, share miscellaneous patient feedback, and discuss new techniques or topics in the industry the provider team has read about. In a practice with autonomous patient schedules per physician assistant or dermatologist and multiple locations, this dedicated meeting ensures there is constant supervision, a clear mission, consistent policies, and a practice that is ever evolving but with a great sense of camaraderie.

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Have the new employee share his/her training recap with the staff at the next staff meeting or in an all-staff email. This gives the new employee a voice and allows the rest of the team to learn what is new from our aesthetic partners.

STAFF EDUCATION

Mentorship extends beyond internal staff. In our practice, we utilize every sales representative and clinical educator to train new and tenured employees on items from retail products to cosmetic devices we have in-office. Asking for support from our aesthetic companies to help train and develop the staff saves us time and money. These meetings might be one-on-one or small group sessions, so every staff member understands the technology, side effects, adverse reactions, contradictions, treatment protocols, and results of every service we offer.

MAINTAINING CONNECTION AND CULTURE

After creating a culture of connection and belonging, you then have to maintain it. We have quarterly staff outings to further nurture our team culture and to celebrate office goals together. The outings start with a team-bonding activity and end with a staff dinner in which we have employees sit next to someone they may not work alongside every day. We have participated in stand-up paddle boarding lessons, sunrise hikes, and golf lessons at our community country club. We have these events bi-monthly. And annually, we host a holiday party and overnight staff retreat.

By actively focusing on creating a work environment that emphasizes personal connection and professional growth, staff members will take ownership of their success and feel connected to you, the team, and the mission of your practice.

Katie French, MS, PA-C

Katie French, MS, PA-C is a board-certified physician assistant at NicholsMD of Greenwich. She has her master’s degree from Seton Hall University and is a current member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants (SDPA).

Kim Nichols, MD, FAAD

Kim Nichols, MD is a board-certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon in Greenwich, CT where she owns her own practice, NicholsMD of Greenwich. She is a graduate of Harvard University as well as the NYU Medical School.

Emily Anne Scalise, MA

Emily Anne Scalise, MA is Director at NicholsMD of Greenwich. She received her master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University and is a member of the Association of Dermatology Administrators and Managers (ADAM).